Today we received 5 plum tomatoes, 2 Carmen peppers, 2 carnival squash (ack! I only took one!), 4 beefsteak tomatoes, 1 basket of beets, 1 bowl of salad mix, 1 bulb of garlic, 3 onions, and 1 bunch of radishes.
I was really excited to see the radishes, which I think of as a spring crop. The goats were equally jazzed for the radish greens; even the shy white goat that rarely comes over for a snack nibbled on a few. The plum tomatoes haven’t been very tasty, but I have saucy plans for them (Linguine with Chicken Thighs) in which they’ll be just fine. The carnival squash is just like an acorn squash. And at the rate we’ve been getting these beautiful beets, I’ll be able to make a huge batch of them for Thanksgiving.
No picture this week, as J. grabbed our share just minutes before we headed out to our first Rosh Hashana dinner last Wednesday.
However, we had some good news from our farm: a large island of vegetables in the middle of an otherwise flooded field (from Irene) was cleared by a Cornell Cooperative Extension agent for harvesting, since they had remained uncontaminated by flood waters. The produce in that island includes cilantro, greens, arugula, salad mix, and head lettuce which will now reappear in our share.
We received 3 onions, 1 bulb of garlic, 3 huge beefsteak tomatoes, 6 plum tomatoes, 1 bowl of beets (no greens), a small bowl of salad mix, a small bowl of arugula, 1 bunch of chards, a small handful of cilantro, and 1 basket of green beans.
These beets are huge! I boiled half of them so we could use them in salads, and then wound up giving a couple to my mom to take home. Thankfully, both J. and I like beets a lot, because we’re going to be eating them for a while. The chard was absolutely gorgeous, and I’d planned on sauteing it, but J. has been adding it to his smoothies instead. J. also blended the cilantro into a vinaigrette that we used on Rosh Hashana, which made a beautiful light green dressing for a tomato and sweet corn salad.
On Wednesday we received 1 quart of small potatoes, 1 bulb of garlic, 4 onions, 2 acorn squash, 1 bunch of beets, 4 beefsteak tomatoes, 1 jalapeño pepper, 1 bell pepper, and 1 pint of small tomatoes.
J. made a huge salad this weekend that was mostly grocery-store produce, so that’s where we’re at with the share now — aside from the tomatoes, it feels like fall. I still have a small eggplant from last week to use up, and right now I have a pot of water on the stove to boil the beets for a salad. I’m roasting poblano peppers from last week, the bell pepper, and 1 leftover Carmen together and may combine them with the eggplant as a vegetable side dish. The potatoes from last week and this week are headed to our first Rosh Hashanah dinner, as Crispy Smashed Roasted Potatoes (I made them for Passover and they were a big hit). I’m also going to be using the acorn squash for Rosh Hashanah, with a maple-bourbon topping.
Although I like this season’s vegetables — squash, potatoes, and so on — I do miss the wash and eat easiness of summer crops. As the season gets cooler, more and more of our produce needs to be cooked before eating. I like the idea of “processing” my share all at once: doing a couple of hours of prep and cooking to get everything ready for use in the week ahead.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how hard hit Roxbury Farm, my CSA, was by Irene. So you may be wondering how they’re still providing us with a pretty decent share each week, while whole fields of crops were lost. First, you’ll notice there are no greens left in the share — no lettuces, no kale, no herbs, etc. And, the farm decided to eliminate their separate winter share option — for an extra $100, you could order a substantial amount of storage vegetables such as potatoes, turnips, and so on. Roxbury refunded the money members paid for a winter share, and are instead divvying up those allotted vegetables as part of the 2011 regular share instead. They’re hoping to make up for the shortfall of expected produce by reallocating the vegetables that did weather the storm in this way.
So, this week we received 1 quart of beefsteak tomatoes (small ones), a basket of potatoes, 2 jalapenos, 1 pint of Ping Pong tomatoes, 1 acorn squash, 1 eggplant, 4 Carmen peppers, 2 poblano peppers, 1 bag of carrots, and 3 onions.
We’ve been enjoying eating the Carmen peppers raw — they’re very sweet and perfect for snacking. I made last week’s potatoes into Oven-Baked Potato Chips, and may try that again with a flavor variation. We didn’t get through all of last week’s tomatoes yet, and now we have another large batch, so I am planning to make Smitten Kitchen’s Slow-Roasted Tomatoes today. I think J. will love them.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more about me and CITK, and keep in touch:
Want to Try
Cheesy Kale Crisps: We rarely eat kale now that our farm share is over, and I want to fix that. I've wanted to try using nutritional yeast, and this recipe looks like a tasty way to do it.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
Want to Try Archives